City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Proofread by Thomas F

The two forces clashed, as well as the skills in the background. Immediately, the skills from the empire showed the edge, pushing the skills of Dorus back.

Though in the battle of the cores, it is I who got pushed back.

I could feel the power of the Tranquil Bathhouse’s core, but also the power of the three artifacts.

Seeing that, I activated the aura to push harder, but I was pushed back even harder than the last time, and its power moved toward my core.

I couldn’t even get close to his core; the only thing I could do was get the power leaking out of his core.

I moved to stop him from coming to my core, but I got pushed back with each clash, before he finally reached my core.

The moment he touched my core, I felt his immense power.

“Fuck!” “Shit!”

Lola and Eudo cursed loudly, seeing that. I could sense the fear in their voice, and I am feeling that fear too, even more than they are.

…

Lord Aardwyn, Tranquill Bathhouse

“Their skills are stronger than ours!” Prince cursed.

I could feel them being pushed back by the empire’s skills. It’s surprising; I thought they would be too busy with the war to help Silver, but they are.

Though I barely focused on it. The kingdom skills may be pushed back, but we will be able to resist them, at least for a while; I have to finish this in that time.

My power pressed Silver’s back, but the next moment, he came again, and I could sense it was much stronger.

Aura.

Feeling that, I harnessed more power from the artifacts and clashed against him, pushing him back.

This bastard and his legacy are so young, how is it so powerful? If I didn’t have the support of the artifacts, he would have reached my core already.

I harnessed even more power and created even stronger pull, which pushed back his pull even further.

Then I harnessed even more, which took me to its core.

Hun!

I examined the core, searching for the weakest piece, when a shock filled my heart.

The core looked big and strong, but it is weak.

‘Greed,’ I thought.

Silver is greedy; he had consumed the dead legacies without any care. There is a reason why Synod warns about swallowing them without caution.

Looking at the state of the core, Silver is paying for what he did.

My sight soon identified the weakest part, and it is pretty substantial. I immediately reached and pulled, but even at this stage, it wasn’t easy, as Silver was attacking my pull.

So, I harnessed all the power I could from the artifacts, gathered all the magical weight I could.

The power became so great that the blood started to leak out of my nose, but I bore it and used it to cover the big piece of the core and pull it out.

It was hard, but I used every ounce of will I had and began to separate from the sun.

I could hear Silver’s scream from the other side, and it made me pull faster, while he attacked my effort like a rabid dog, but I didn’t let go and kept pulling the piece.

Finally, after a considerable effort, I was able to pull out a piece and took it toward my core.

Silver tried to stop me, but the efforts grew rabid, and I remained calm, taking it to my core.

“Such a big piece!” gasped Rylan as he sensed it. “How big is it?” asked the Prince immediately.

“Around 10% of the core!” I replied, and his eyes went wide. Even Constance looked like he could barely believe it, but the proof was in front of them.

It wasn’t easy, it took all my efforts, but I finally did it.

I took the piece and threw it into my core. Immediately, the pool swallowed it and began to tear it apart, merging it with itself.

With the whole power of the core and three artifacts, the large part quickly began to become part of my core.

“Make use of this opportunity and tear more pieces of Silver’s core!” commanded the Prince. Of course, I will do that; I stopped only for a breath.

It wasn’t easy to take a piece of the Silver’s legacy, but I did.

It had already started strengthening my core, and even the leaking of essence is slowing down. Which surprised me, but filled me with joy.

It might be polluted, but it is undoubtedly the big piece. One more and it will be enough to stop the leaking of my core.

Once that happens, my legacy will be out of danger.

Yes, such swallowing will pollute my legacy, but I don’t care much. It will give my legacy a new lease of life. Even if not much, it will stand for another century.

Such legacies had advanced too, and I have confidence that with the freedom, I will make my legacy advance to a throne.

With that thought, I moved forward Silver’s core. Once more, gathering all the power that my core and the artifacts give me to snatch another piece from the core.

‘Hehe!’

Silver came to stop me, which made me laugh. With such a big piece gone, he will be even weaker.

I am standing because of the artifacts. I can’t sense any artifact on him. His legacy is gone; he should just give up, it will save him a lot of pain.

My power reached its peak and clashed with him.

Hun!

As they, the smile on my face disappeared, and shock filled my heart.

“How is this possible?”

…

Greltheaven

“Ahhhh!”

I screamed loudly as Aardwyn tore away the large piece of my legacy.

It is a tenth of my legacy, and he had just torn it away and moved it toward his legacy.

As he did, I felt the warmth of the spell; it began to soothe the pain I was feeling. Taking on the legacy is like taking on a part of my spiritual core; it has wounded my spirit.

Even the spell isn’t enough to heal the damage.

A moment later, I saw him throwing the piece of my legacy into the core of his legacy. It immediately started to tear it apart and merge with it.

“Fish took the bait,” said Caena with a knowing smile.

Yes, it was intentional and a massive risk. We have been preparing this for months. It is why it had only hurt this much; if there hadn’t been preparation, the pain and backlash would have been much greater.

“Was it really necessary to take such risks?” asked Lola, looking at Caena angrily.

“Yes,” replied Caena.

“The core of the Tranquill Bathhouse had been strengthened by the century and a half with the throne, and you all felt the three artifacts.”

“I also sensed the presence of another, covering him, likely from the prince.”

“It is a formidable force to go against. Even with the spell and help from you all, the chances of succeeding were not great; we needed more.” She stated.

“Will it work?” asked Ina. “Let’s hope it does,” Caena replied.

We had thought deeply about this plan before going with it. This is a rare opportunity to acquire the entire core. Before, we weren’t able to get more than 40% of any core.

This one is living, which means it won’t quickly try to get away as long as we get our hands on it.

He came at me again, and I gathered the power from my core. It’s painful, but I bear it, and even used my aura; this time, it’s not just a little bit of it.

As I did, I moved it and pushed it forward toward the Tranquill Bathhouse’s core.

The two powers clashed, and for the first time, I stopped his pull in its tracks.

I wanted to push it back, but he is not weak. The core is powerful, and the power of the three artifacts is also significant; it would require considerable effort to push against it.

So, I gathered more power and pushed it again. He also came with greater power, and we clashed to a standstill.

So, I poured more into my aura and gathered even more power from my core, bearing the pain.

Finally, this time when I clashed, I pushed it back a little.

We clashed, and again, I pushed him back little by little while looking at his core, where more than half of my focus is.

What he took isn’t just a piece of my legacy, but much more. As it merges with his legacy, it is giving me a growing sense of his core.

It is merging with his core at an extremely fast rate. That is how we want it.

Only when it merges with it fully can we begin our real offensive. Until then, I will clash with him, getting an idea of the master’s strength.

I have to say it is strong.

The core is as strong as I expected, but it is the artifact that is providing the greater boost. The two artifacts are good, but the third one is the most troublesome.

Rhidon’s Vitae

It is neither an offensive, defensive, nor protective artifact, but rather an artifact that became part of the legacy.

Means he could use its full magical weight against me.

So, I kept clashing against him, finding the pattern and weaknesses. It is a battle of the very highest stakes; the future of the dominion depends on it.

If I lose the legacy, there is no way. I will survive against the undead.

It’s the thing that gives me hope to stand against them. Without it, the undead will destroy us.

Finally, the last of my core’s essence merged with the Tranquill’s Bathhouse’s core. Giving me a complete sense of it, I don’t discern what he is sensing from his core.

This is not the only thing we planned.

“It’s time, everyone,” said Caena, and a moment later, I felt their power. It didn’t merge with me, that’s not possible.

The battle for the core is between me and the master of Tranquill Bathhouse; no one could help us with that aside from the artifacts.

They will help me later, but for that to happen. I need to reach its core.

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